ON STAGE: Extra points for ‘Point Break Live!’ at the Sinclair Saturday

By Ed SymkusWicked Local Arts Correspondent

Wednesday

Jan 28, 2015 at 12:38 PMJan 28, 2015 at 12:38 PM

If you haven’t seen “Point Break,” director Kathryn Bigelow’s ridiculous and ridiculously enjoyable 1991 surfer-skydiver-bank robber movie, starring Keanu Reeves as green FBI Agent Johnny Utah and Patrick Swayze as philosopher-criminal Bodhi (short for Bodhisattva), go out and find a copy. There’s probably one at your local library. You’ll need to see it if you have any interest in “Point Break Live!” the staged production of the film that’s happening at the Sinclair in Cambridge on Jan. 31. If you’re already a fan of the film, grab a ticket to the show before it sells out.

Created and scripted by and co-starring Jaime Keeling, “Point Break Live!” has been kicking around for about 15 years. A review in Variety described it as “a parody-celebration of the film.” Keeling thinks the reviewer’s words are perfect.

“I loved ‘Point Break’ as a kid,” Keeling said by phone from Nashville. “I brought my VHS copy of it to college, and started making my roommates recite lines. Eventually I was making them act out the parts, and it became kind of a college gag.”

When she later landed a job as program director for the Northwest Film Forum in Seattle, booking repertory films at the Grand Illusion Cinema, she got the idea to use the little black box theater behind the screen to stage a loving send-up of “Point Break.”

“I was at a board meeting there, we had a few drinks, and I said it would be awesome to act it out on the stage,” she recalled. “When I said that, people laughed their asses off and said it sounds amazing. Go for it!” She wrote a script based on the film, came up with a unique twist and, to her surprise, it took off.

Keeling explained that twist, and how it made the show a crowd pleaser.

“The conceit is that you’re there to see a production of the movie, but Keanu Reeves didn’t show up, so we’re going to have to cast the lead from the audience for the night. And he has a handler who has cue cards so the audience member playing the role of Keanu Reeves knows what to say. The handler is also that person’s stunt double because when there’s an action sequence, you can’t ask an audience member to do that. I play [director] Kathryn Bigelow, so I jump in with a megaphone and say, ‘Cut! Get that person out of there. Let’s get the stunt double in. All right … action!’ ”

Another part of the gimmick is that the audience isn’t there to “see” a movie. They’re there to “be in” a movie. The audience plays the extras in the interactive production.

“It’s a bit complicated,” said Keeling. “Every audience member gets a ‘survival kit.’ It’s got a poncho because there’s water and ‘blood,’ and there’s fake money for them to give out when they get robbed.”

Keeling is one of nine professional improvisational actors who tour with the play. So who gets to play Johnny Utah? Five people are invited onstage and are put through a sort of trial-audition, then the audience chooses the Keanu for the night.

“Some people come prepared,” said Keeling of the Johnny wannabes. “A lot of guys come looking like Johnny Utah. Some come wearing a suit jacket, kind of looking like him in his FBI outfit, or some will have a wet suit on.

“Lori Petty, who played Tyler, the love interest in the movie, came to see the show in L.A. last year,” she added. “She was chosen to play the role of Johnny Utah that night.”

“Point Break” aficionados will be happy to know that even though some scenes have been shortened and a couple eliminated, most of the film is recreated, to a degree, on the stage. The actors mime surfing, with fake waves behind them. For the skydiving sequence, characters are belted up and dangled from the ceiling as a fan blows beneath their faces to emulate freefalling. And, most important, Keeling has kept the masked bank robbing team known as the Ex-Presidents.

“We had the masks made for us,” she said. “But somebody stole the Jimmy Carter mask and we had to replace him with George Bush. So it’s LBJ, Nixon, Reagan and Bush.”

Even after uncountable viewings, Keeling still loves the film her show is based on.

“It’s an excellent movie,” she said. “It holds up over time. I watch it now and I believe it every time. It sucks you in. It’s only after you stop watching it and you think about where the plot takes you that you realize it’s absurd. It’s a great movie.”

But is she planning to see the upcoming Hollywood remake that’s scheduled to hit screens in July?

“Of course I’m going to go see it,” she said. “I’m a little worried about how they’ll pull it off. But I hope it’s awesome.”